Resolved and Respectful

"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine and asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this way." (Dan. 1:8)

I am getting barraged with questions about when the church will be opened up again and hearing both sides of the argument about government overreach. I have seen a number of Christians turn to Acts 4 and 5 where the mantra "obey God rather than men" is used in support of reopening or just getting back to life. 

Neither of those passages can be used to support the times that we are living in at present. Acts chapters 4 and 5 are speaking to a religious/civil authority telling the disciples that they cannot speak or teach in the Name of Jesus again - essentially trying to stomp out Christianity before it ran rampant. That is far from the case in our situation. I prefer to go to the example that Daniel gives to us: Resolved and Respectful. 

Daniel was asked to do something that violated his moral conscience (eating and drinking forbidden food and drink, or food and drink that he had made a vow to abstain from). He resolved, he decided before hand, that he would not compromise when it came to his spiritual purity before God. How did he proceed in this foreign culture with differing expectations? He respectfully negotiated. 

The official over Daniel was concerned for his own safety and well-being. He didn't want those in his care to look weak and sickly and suffer the consequences of that personally. Fear was driving the decision. Daniel respectfully offered a test. Give us vegetables and water for ten days. If we aren't meeting your standard, well...we'll do it your way. The outcome was in Daniel's favor as he was favored by God. 

There is so much information, disinformation, changing information, and down right deception coming from government officials and the science community, that a person doesn't know really what to do or believe. God has put governing authorities over us and we need to respect that authority but we can also respectfully disagree and offer other solutions that will keep people alive and their livelihood in tact at the same time. 

There seems to be a number of inconsistencies about why some businesses get to open and others must stay closed at the risk of penalty if opened. What is essential and what is not. Common sense does not seem to be so common, especially when, in reality, we are dealing with two percent of the population dying. More people die of the regular flue, cancer, complications of diabetes, car crashes, etc...but this fact seems to be sidestepped in favor of panic and fear. I get a sense that there is some backside covering in this whole thing but I'm just an ignorant former farm boy. 

So what do we do? Be resolved to do what we can, within reason, to be above reproach in our reputations and in our desire to be what God has called us out to be. Be respectful when we disagree. God has brought us to this place for a divine reason. We haven't been forbidden to worship or name the Name of Jesus. In fact, the pandemic has caused a spiritual awakening via the internet. We have far more people visiting our site than we ever had before and that is likely to continue even after we are released for the month of July only to probably be sequestered again from August to next June (kidding...maybe). 

So we have to worship differently for a few months...we'll get through. And if this continues we'll find ways of gathering together in the parking lot or in the church sanctuary with six services of twenty-five people and a service at night and on Wednesday. We will figure it out. It's what humans do. It's what followers of Jesus do. 

However...if the king says you can't pray to anyone except the king...fling the window open, look to Jerusalem, pray your heart out, and know that the critics and the lions are waiting in the wings. Resolved and Respectfully yours. 

129 days to home

It Simply Happened

Surprise. Not many things surprise me when it comes to Church history. I have been studying it for half my life. But every once in a while I will light upon a subject that has the tendency to bore most but enlivens me personally, especially when it gives me help in navigating this sequestration and the changes that will be coming our way as a church. The "virus" has given me an opportunity to read The Patient Ferment of the Early Church:  The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire by Mennonite scholar and former missionary, Alan Kreider. 

"Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen." (Wikipedia, "Fermentation." Cited 5-5-20)

And for the rest of us..."its the living stuff that we can't see that makes bread rise and grape juice sour." (Dan Lute, Cited 5-5-20 9 ; - )

The early church grew. It is an undeniable fact. In the book of Acts we see that it grew through the preaching of Peter and the teaching of Paul. But these are rare examples and not the norm for the first three hundred years of the church's struggling existence.

The church grew and any non-Christian person should be surprised at its survival. Followers of Jesus can rest on the words of Matthew 16, "Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." But in either position we must ask, "How?"

"Nobody had to join the churches. People were not compelled to become members by invading armies or the imposition of laws; social convention did not induce them to do so. Indeed, Christianity grew despite the opposition of laws and social convention. These were formidable disincentives." (p. 8) "According to the evidence at our disposal, the expansion of the church was not organized, the product of a mission program; it simply happened." (p. 9)

It appears that very little of what we attribute to church growth was included in the early church. There was no evangelism strategy to reach our neighbors. They did not use their worship services to attract people. In fact, very quickly, because of persecution, unbelievers were not allowed to attend church services. They certainly weren't allowed to participate in the Lord's Supper or prayer meetings. These actions that characterized the early church were protected and preserved because they encased the divine power of God, of heaven on earth. Pagans, therefore, looked upon Christianity as a secret society; a "Jewish sect" worthy of speculation and gossip.

It appears that the greatest distinction of Christianity in the first three hundred years was it's quiet patience - this indescribable spiritual fermentation that developed into the global loaf (Body) that it is today. And it was observed by others. Patience was observed as they prayed for their neighbors. Patience was observed as they prayed for the governing authorities that were persecuting them. Patience was observed during the reign of Nero, Claudius, Diocletian, Domitian and other self-proclaimed demi-gods. Patience was observed during plagues that ravaged whole communities (e.g. Carthage in the 200's). Patience was observed when they were kicked out of their families, when they were ostracized and forbidden to be a part of the larger business community. 

This patience was attractive to those dissatisfied with their debauched culture. The Christian patience was attractive to those on the margins, to those excluded, to those isolated and experiencing social distancing. The Christian patience was a unique draw to those desiring a stronger sense of community around a faith system that was not connected to some sort of legalistic religious mechanism but to genuine love that crossed over social boundaries. They were attracted to a patience that led to a new birth, a new life, a new hope, a new Way. 

It was a patience that endured because there was a coming expectation that was well worth the wait. It was a patient endurance that clearly communicated that their is a God, the true God, who is in control and moving things toward a hope-filled eternity. Jesus was coming...again. They patiently waited. 

And here I am...complaining every single day about the ridiculous, voluntary, separation that I am made to endure. In my hubris thoughts I presume to tell God what he is doing wrong. "Hurry it up already! I need to get back to ministry, to reaching people for Jesus." My words betray me. My thoughts minimizing the God I know. 

Father...help me to be patient. My unsaved friends and neighbors need me to be. 

Day 138  until home. Maranatha!

Under Pressure

"We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers." (2 Cor. 1:8b-11a) 

I work well under pressure. During my doctoral work days I had to have several thirty page papers due as well as two thousand pages of reading finished - before the actual class took place. I like deadlines because they force me to stay focused. The death of me is being bored. I say this because we all have different pressure points mentally and different ways of dealing with them. 

During this time of pandemic, I scratch my head in bewilderment but also grieve at stories like the medical doctor on the frontlines who contracted the virus, recovered, but then took her own life. It was a pressure "far beyond [her] ability to endure, so that she despaired even of life." 

At this time I have to be careful to not fall into a spiritual depression myself. The feeling of hopelessness when there is hope all around. It tends to be an inward focus that is provoked by my inability to focus on others as I would and should. 

I am reminded of the solution that the Apostle Paul gives to us today in his own words. 

First, recognize that God has allowed this pandemic into our lives. He is not the cause of it. Humans are. Our parents, Adam and Eve, set in motion a broken world full of violence, sickness, selfishness, and rebellion through their willful disobedience to God. And yet, in God's mercy, we can still find traces of love and grace and goodness.  

Second, recognize that their is a divine purpose for allowing it. It was meant to bring us back to a place where we rely on God and not on ourselves. This is a key point for me. When I start realizing that there is a purpose in this, to draw me closer to Him, my eyes begin to lift and my heart begins to be lighter. 

Third, realize that God has the power to raise the dead. Lifting one out of a depression or a sense of hopelessness is nothing for the Creator of all things. 

Fourth, God has promised to deliver us. It is a fact. How He chooses to do so is up to him. But this gives me hope that things will change. Tomorrow always holds out hope. 

Lastly, God uses others in the process. People are praying for me. I am praying for them. It is the divine mystery of how God has chosen to lift us up. He could certainly do it Himself but He chose to use you and me - to partner with us in bringing hope to others. 

More than ever, the words, "I am praying for you," bring the much needed spiritual medicine to my soul. My hope is that I am dispensing the cure to others as well. 

Little know fact: RX is an abbreviation for the Latin word, Radix. It means "root," or "recipe," as in "to take a root prescribed for medicinal purposes."

Just as it was...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Wait a minute, Pastor Dan, you started out with this last week. Yes, I know, but I want to look at this in our present context and with a word that Jesus gave to his disciples in speaking about his second coming. 

I am asked repeatedly, "Pastor Dan, will things ever get back to normal?" My answer is "Yes," and "No." I don't think we will ever go back to life as we knew it. This virus has changed how we do life and how we will be gathering (or not), how we get groceries (or not). 

Let me give you two examples of encouragement from Jesus. 

"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man (his second coming). People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark." (Luke 17:26-27a)

"It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying, and selling, planting and building." (Luke 17:28)

Life will get back to normal. It must. Because it is the precursor to Jesus' coming. The rhythms of life will find there way again. But I struggle in my heart to know if I should rejoice or be grieved. I'm certainly more motivated to follow Jesus and to make him known to others. I want out of this evil, wicked world, but my heart pleads for more time for those I know that are lost. 

When the virus hit, people were open to talking about the Lord, about end time issues, about how to change their lives to please God. The crisis provided opportunities. Our little church website that had maybe twenty hits on it has been getting two to three...thousand. 

Is this the Fourth Great Awakening (or Fifth; depending on if you count the 1960's Calvary Chapel movement)? Time and history will tell. But given the huge turn that people have had toward the things of God, I happen to think, "yes." However, I firmly believe, evidenced by recent conversations, and my spirit confirming it, that this will be short lived. I believe that this time will produce a multitude of new believers in Jesus but it will be the last before the coming of Jesus for his Church. As quick as people's hearts were open toward the Lord, I am now finding that the door of the heart is quickly closing. 

In honesty, I must admit that both of the above scripture passages were incomplete (per my own purpose). May I finish?

"Then the flood came and destroyed them all." (Luke 17:27b)

"But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all." (Luke 17:29). 

"It must be just like this [this return to normal] on the day the Son of Man is revealed." (Luke 17:30). 

Praying for a return to normal? Be careful and understand what you're praying for.

Maranatha! (1 Corinthians 13:22b)  And, Father, bring in those of our family and friends who still need to know your Son, Jesus, as Savior. 

A Dickens of a Time

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was a season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." 

Describes the time we live in perfectly, doesn't it? I guess that's what makes good literature - transcendence. Very seldom is the full paragraph quoted. Many are satisfied with the first two phrases. But how powerful those two phrases are in describing the times that people often lived in - our own as well. How much more the remaining paragraph. It truly is a degree of comparisons. 

This, of course, is the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities written by Charles Dickens in 1859. Written as if one were in the year 1777  prior to the French Revolution (1789) and the potential English uprising, the cities were London and Paris. How different the outcomes would be. But why? 

British historian, Thomas Carlyle, described this time in England as "Stomach well alive; soul extinct." Sir William Blackstone visited numerous Christian churches in the area at that time and said that it was hard to tell if the preacher was a follower of  Confucius, Mohammed, or Jesus. Drunkenness was rampant. Gambling was so bad, so prolific, one historian wrote that England was "one giant casino." Unwanted babies were left in the streets to die. A 97% child mortality rate was found among the working poor. The common man found himself in a hopeless situation watching the social rumblings and turmoil of neighboring France and wondering if that would be the solution/course for themselves. 

Then why did France fall into a bloody revolution for 10 years and England not?  Three names:  George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley. 

People prayed and the Lord brought three men to begin a great revival. They preached in the open fields to those hungering and thirsting for righteousness. They preached Christ, repentance from sin, faith, holiness, and good works that flowed out from a personal relationship with Jesus. And the masses responded. They needed hope. They needed change. They had two choices: Do it themselves (France) or seek the Lord's intervention (England). 

As a result antislavery organizations took hold, prison reform happened, relief agencies for the poor opened, orphanages were created (spurring on future men like George Muëller), literacy programs began. God heard the cries of the English people and he gave them Jesus in the form of men and women who were willing to turn people's heart's away from fear and hatred, toward a living, loving God. Cited:  4-15-20; https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/evangelical-revival-in-england-11630228.html

O Church, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times... It truly is a degree of comparisons. Let us choose rightly which path our nation should take, our churches should take, our personal lives should take. Let us be people of prayer who repent, who desire holiness, who humbly seek our Savior's face and his return. 

From Charles Wesley, Lamb of God Whose Bleeding Love, verse 3. 

"Let thy blood by faith applied
The sinners pardon seal; 
Speak us freely justified,
And all our sickness heal;
By they passion on the tree,
Let our griefs and sorrows cease,
O remember Calvary, 
And bid us go in peace."

I Will

I will be married to my beloved wife for thirty-eight years this year. Thirty-eight years ago in August I said a bunch of "I wills" and "I do's." I'm pretty sure it was the standard, "Will you have this woman to be your wife, to live together in holy matrimony? Will you love her, honor her, keep her in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long you both shall live?"

I don't remember much of it, but I do remember that we added, "or until our Lord and Savior comes back." We knew that God hated divorce, so I am sure there were times in those thirty-seven plus years we were praying fervently for the last phrase to come to pass. 

To be honest, although I've tried, I am certain that I have not lived up to those vows like I desired. Life happens. Sin happens. Grace happens. And we're still here - together - no social distancing. 

Vows are more than contractual agreements between parties. They come out of a place of integrity and a place of relationship. They are sacred covenants. This is the essence of Passover and the great "I wills" of Exodus 6 which is celebrated tonight. It is here that the traditional four cups of the Seder Supper are derived.

 5 "Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
 6 Therefore, say to the Israelites: 'I am the LORD, and (1) I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. (2) I will free you from being slaves to them, and (3 ) I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
 7 (4) I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.
8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.'" (Exod. 6:5-8 NIV) [Note:  Verse 8 is technically a fifth "I will" but is not taken for some unknown reason in the Seder remembrance.]

The first cup is the cup of "sanctification."  It is a call to come apart or to come out from among "them" for a divine purpose. It is the recognition that we are all in bondage to sin. Egypt is a place of darkness not light. Come out and into the revealed light of God. 

The second cup is the cup of "deliverance." When one recognizes his/her need to come out of sin, the entanglements of this world can be quite difficult. Only the power of God can set you free from its slavery. 

The third cup is the cup of "redemption." This cup represents the fact that God must save us. He saved them by divine directive. It was by the blood of the lamb that the Hebrews were saved from the angel of death. It was the mighty hand of God that opened the sea and provided a way of escape for them. It was the mighty hand of God that closed the sea over the pursing Egyptians. God is our redeemer. He is our kinsman redeemer who buys us back for His divine purposes. This is the cup that Jesus gave to his disciples and said, "This is the new covenant that I am making in my blood." God, in the flesh, is redeeming mankind through his own hand. 

The fourth cup is the cup of praise. It is the cup of acceptance. God has accepted us through the sacrifice of his Son. We are his people and He is our God. It is also the cup of celebration that anticipates the coming fullness of the kingdom of God. What Jesus begins with his death, he will complete at his second coming. It is the cup that Jesus said, "I will never drink of it again until I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."  

There is a fifth cup. It is called the Elijah cup. It is left untouched as a reminder that Elijah will come as an unknown guest initiating the coming of the Messiah. 

The four cups are akin to marriage vows. "Jesus, will you have this  people, the Church to be your wife, to live together in holy matrimony? Will you love her, honor her, keep her in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long you both shall live?" Jesus says, "I will." 

He has. Have we? On this night we remember his vows and ours. 

Blessed be the Name of the Lord and our Savior, the Lamb of God slain before the foundations of the world for our salvation. Maranatha!

Too Hard to Put into Words

Our last verse for the Lenten season is Isaiah 53:12. It is a difficult verse. If you compare translations, you'll find that they come up with different ways of trying to get the Hebrew out. 

For example, the NIV says, "Therefore I will give him a portion with the great or many." The NLT says, "I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier." The ESV says, "I will divide him a portion with the many." Clear as mud, you say? Agreed. Perhaps that is the point of the whole verse. The divine prize and purpose of the person of Jesus is so unfathomable that it is too difficult for any language to put into words. Let's try our best to "unmuddy" those waters. 

Jesus, a child born under suspicious circumstances (at least from the world's perspective), born to poor parents, who lived in a small village of no notable factors ("can anything good come out of Nazareth?"), who was a teacher, but never started a school, who was a great theologian, but never wrote a book, who gathered tax collectors, prostitutes, and common laborers as his followers, and who was murdered in his early thirties...this man shall be given a portion with the great men and women of the world for all history to record and ponder. Clear water yet? I didn't think so. 

It wont' be because of his military prowess or political persuasion but for something more notable, more noble, more unique. Quite frankly, unheard of and for many, unbelievable. 

"...and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isa. 53:12 NIV)

Many have given their lives for others - a noble self-sacrifice. But no one has been able to be our substitute to satisfy the wrath of God...once for all. 

"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:7-8)

If one truly thinks about it, it's almost too hard to put into words. 

Perhaps that's the point. Perhaps that's why he is so great.